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name: cicd description: CI/CD pipeline best practices including GitHub Actions, testing, and deployment strategies. globs: ["/.github/workflows/*.yml", "/.gitlab-ci.yml", "/Jenkinsfile", "/.circleci/config.yml"] priority: 75 tags: ["devops"]

CI/CD Best Practices

Pipeline Design

• Keep pipelines fast (< 10 min)
• Fail fast (lint/test first)
• Cache dependencies
• Use parallel jobs
• Make builds reproducible

GitHub Actions

• Use specific action versions
• Use composite actions for reuse
• Store secrets in GitHub Secrets
• Use matrix for multi-version testing
• Use artifacts for build outputs

Testing in CI

• Run unit tests on every push
• Run integration tests on PR
• Run E2E tests before deploy
• Generate coverage reports
• Fail on coverage drops

Deployment

• Use blue/green or canary deployments
• Automate staging deployments
• Require approval for production
• Implement rollback procedures
• Use feature flags

Security

• Scan dependencies (Dependabot, Snyk)
• Scan Docker images
• Run SAST/DAST
• Rotate secrets regularly
• Use OIDC for cloud auth

Artifacts

• Version artifacts semantically
• Sign artifacts
• Store in artifact registry
• Clean up old artifacts